These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the perfect cookie. The brown butter gives these cookies a rich toffee flavor and a hint of salt. They have crisp, golden edges, a nice crust on the outside, but are still soft and gooey in the center with melty semisweet chocolate.
Why this Recipe Works
I spent years trying to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I tested dozens before deciding to just come up with my own. The brown butter and high baking temperature I think it what gives these brown butter chocolate chip cookies an edge.
The brown butter offers a subtle nutty flavor that blends perfectly with the molasses in the brown sugar to give the cookie that amazing rich slightly smoky and nutty toffee flavor.
Baking your cookies at a higher temperature will cook the outside of the cookie faster before the inside cooks too much. This trick is going to give you those crispy edges and exterior and keep the inside nice and soft.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter. The amount of butter listed in the ingredients is the amount needed before you brown it. Once browned you will probably lose about 25% of your butter as liquid evaporates during the browning process.
- Brown Sugar. We use a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar in this recipe. The molasses in the brown sugar compliments the brown butter well and amps up that amazing toffee-butterscotch flavor. If you want an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe without brown sugar, we have a delicious and super easy one!
- Flour. A classic, no-frills, all-purpose flour is all we use here. The most important thing when it comes to flour is making sure you don’t use too much—spoon and level, weigh, and check out our guide on How to Measure Flour Correctly.
- Semisweet Chocolate Chips. I prefer semisweet chocolate chips over milk in this recipe. The slight bitterness from the semisweet chocolate chips adds the perfect contrast to this rich brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
How to Make this Recipe
- How to Brown Butter. Start by browning your butter. Place the butter in a heavy bottomed pan, make sure it is large as the butter tends to foam up quite a bit. Keep stirring it over medium-high heat until the butter has reached an amber color and there are brown bits at the bottom. Consult out How to Brown Butter tutorial for FAQs on browning butter, pictures, and a video!
- Chill the butter. Place the butter in a large bowl and chill or freeze until it has returned to a solid state. You want it to be room temperature, solid, but soft enough to be creamed. Chilling the butter is essential to these brown butter chocolate chip cookies, so do not try to skip this step. Picture A shows what the butter will look like after it is chilled and Picture B shows it after it has been moved to the mixing bowl. Notice the toasted milk solids (the dark bits) have sunk to the bottom of the dish. Don’t forget to get all those dark bits into your mixing bowl, they add lots of toasted butter flavor!
- Cream the butter and sugar. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar for 1 minute.
- Add the eggs. Then add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2-3 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Please note: the image pictured is a double batch, which is why you see 4 eggs in the image instead of 2.
- Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients in so they are just barely incorporated. Overworking the dough will result in tough cookies.
- Add the chocolate chips. Stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly dispersed throughout the dough.
- Bake. Take 4 tablespoons of dough and shape into round balls. Place on a greased or lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread (I typically place 6 cookie dough balls on a baking sheet). Let the cookies cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When butter is browned the milk solids are toasted giving it a nutty and toffee flavor that complements the rest of the ingredients. If 1 ¼ cups of butter seems like a lot to you in this recipe it is because butter loses about 25% of its liquid when it is browned. So you end up with closer to 1 cup of butter by the time you add it into the mixing bowl.
If your cookies are too flat, this is usually a result of not chilling the butter after it has been browned. We need the butter chilled back to room temperature so that air can be whipped into it when it is creamed together with the sugars and eggs. Otherwise you will end up with puddles for cookies.
Typically, if your cookies are hard after they have cooled it means that you didn’t make the cookies large enough. Remember, we’re using about 4 tablespoons of dough per cookie. If you make them smaller they will end up slightly overbaked and won’t have that same soft center that you get with the larger cookies.
Expert Tips
- Make sure your flour is measured correctly. Too much flour is a cardinal sin in baking. You need to take care when measuring it, I prefer to weigh my flour, but otherwise take a second to review our guide on How to Measure Flour Properly. Too much flour in your brown butter chocolate chip cookies can make them dry, tough, crumbly, or too thick, none of which are good.
- Get all the brown bits in your brown butter. After you brown your butter you’ll see all sorts of little brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Those are toasted milk solids and they add a delicious toasted and salty flavor to the brown butter chocolate chip cookies. So scrape every last bit of them into your bowl for maximum flavor.
How to Make Pretty Cookies
- Make your cookies big. Bigger cookies look prettier. I use ¼ cup of dough for the perfect crispy and gooey ratio. This is my favorite cookie scoop to use.
- Top the off. Before you put your cookie dough balls in the oven top them with a few extra chocolate chips. This makes sure you've got some chocolate chips picture perfect on top of every cookie.
- Bang the Pan. Right when your cookies come out of the oven bang the pan on the counter. the pushes the cookies out and gives them those beautiful wrinkles.
- Make them circular. If your cookies are a little misshapen it's okay, you can fix them. While the cookies are still hot take your spatula and gently push in the edges anywhere the cookies aren't perfectly round. You can also use a large round cookie cutter or even a large mason jar to shape your brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Just move the cookie cutter in a circular motion around the cookie to make it a perfect circle.
How to Store this Recipe
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
I love to have a stock of these in my freezer for when I'm craving a cookie or in case I need to bring a little treat to someone fast! So here's what you'll want to do:
- Scoop the cookie dough into ¼ cup balls and line them up on a lined cookie sheet and place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 30-60 minutes. This is going to make sure they maintain their shape and don't get squished and misshapen in the freezer
- Then you can place them in a freezer safe gallon back or stack them on top of each other in a tupperware container, I like to place a piece of parchment paper, wax paper, or even plastic wrap in between the layers of cookie dough so that they don't get stuck to each other. You can freeze these for up to 3 months.
- Before baking, pull out however many cookie dough balls you want and let them sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then bake according to normal instructions, you may need to add a minute to the baking time
How to Store at Room Temperature
- To maintain the crispy edges and soft centers, my preferred method of storing these is to leave them on a plate or tray and loosely cover them with a towel overnight.
- If you decide to store them in a sealed container (like a Ziploc bag or Tupperware) The cookies will likely lose their crisp exterior and take on a chewy texture overall (still delicious though!).
You May Also Like These Other Cookie Recipes:
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup butter (280 grams) see notes
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ¾ cups of flour (357 grams) measured correctly
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2-2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (360-480 grams)
Instructions
- Brown 1 ¼ cups of butter in a medium-large saucepan, stirring constantly over medium-high heat, until you reach a deep honey color. Remove from heat and pour into your mixing bowl. Cool butter in fridge or freezer until room temperature consistency, you want your butter to be solid. If you use it when its still liquid your cookies will be flat.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease baking sheets with cooking spray or line with silicone mats or parchment paper.
- Once butter has set up, cream together butter and both sugars for 1 minute. Add in eggs and vanilla for and additional 2-3 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy. (Make sure you get all those toasty brown bits at the bottom of your brown butter!)
- Add in flour, baking soda, and salt. Only mix the dry ingredients in until just barely combined—over mixing will make the cookies tough. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Take ¼ cup of dough (about 68 grams) and shape into round balls bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the top and edges are just golden. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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originally published August 19, 2018
Tasha
This was a really good recipe, definitely a little more time consuming with browned butter but worth it. Just allow yourself more time as the browned butter needs to solidify. I did put my butter in the freezer mixing it every 15 minutes but it took about 45 minutes to come to room temp (I also had mine cooling in small glass bowls, which probably slowed the cooling). I used a 2 tablespoon/30 ml scooper and had to quadruple the recipe as they were for a school fundraiser. My scooper yielded to over 120 cookies, I only needed 96 so my family was very excited to have leftovers. I will definitely be making these for Christmas, they were crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Let them cool! My husband went right in and loved them but they are so much better cooled so you get the chewy texture.
The only change I may make would be to cut the salt even more as I used the normal amount as well as salted butter (which I think I saw a note about but I forgot). No complaints from my family but myself isn’t a fan of tasting the salt too much. My daughter has an egg allergy, what would be the best substitute for this cookie if any?
Thanks again for the amazing recipe!
Diane
This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ll ever use from now on. Can it work for oatmeal cookies. Thanks so much.
In Fine Taste
HI Diane, I'm so glad you liked the cookies! I've never tried using this recipe with oatmeal, but I imagine you could just add 1 cup of rolled oats to this recipe and they'd turn out great.
I do have an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe on the blog, I highly recommend: https://infinetaste.com/chewy-oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/ (Not brown butter, but definitely a family favorite!)
- Alyssa
Brenda
I found this recipe about two years ago and now it’s the only chocolate chip cookie I make! The brown butter flavor puts the taste over the top and it’s a cookie that stays chewy.
Portia
Is the flour used in this recipe self rising or all purpose?
Savana
Can I prep these a day in advance and store in the fridge?
In Fine Taste
Hi Savana! Yes, you can make the cookie dough a day in advance and store it in the fridge. Just make sure you cover it tightly with plastic wrap so it does not dry out. Either let the dough come to room temperature before baking or you'll need to add an extra minute or so to the bake time since they will be cold.
- Alyssa
Linda
I love recipe and I've made it my go to chocolate chip recipe! The brown butter gives it a kick.
Paulette Codipilly
I have made this recipe about a dozen times. Sometimes I make two double batches if I need a lot and so I can freeze the dough balls to have on hand. I’ve been through culinary school and volunteer teach a cooking class to high school students. Ive got a large family and have made thousands of cookies in the last 45 yrs. And I can say without a doubt, these are the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever! I give them a light sprinkle of flaked sea salt soon as I pull them out of the oven. And they are perfect every time! I do make them just slightly smaller. Using about 3- 3 1/2 Tablespoons of dough per cookie so it yields about 24 cookies per batch instead of 20. They are done baking after about 7 1/2-8 minutes. I really don’t think there’s a better recipe out there for chocolate chip cookies. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and all of the detailed tips. It’s sure brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces!
Christy
I made this recipe for the first time last week and am making it again today. This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have made! I made the cookies a bit smaller because that’s my preference and baked them for about 7 minutes.. perfection!
Susan
I was wondering, can this recipe be scooped into cookies and frozen?
In Fine Taste
Hi Susan, yes the cookie dough can be scooped and frozen. Just thaw the dough out for about 30 minutes before baking, you may need to add 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
- Alyssa
Renee
This is an incredible recipe! My family loves these cookies and, if I bring them anywhere, they are a huge hit. Thank you so much for the recipe and great descriptions.
Antoinette Elam
These cookies are delicious 😋 my hubby and my coworkers love them...... sometimes I add 1 cup of oatmeal to the recipe 🤌🏽 but most times just dark chocolate chips.
Dee
The only thing I would change is the amount of chocolate chips. It's way too much. Next tim I'll try 1 cup. Other than that, everything is perfect .
Samantha
I hate to nitpick, (although I am) but if you use salted butter, which is 90 mg per tablespoon, that's an additional 1800 mg of sodium. So if using unsalted butter, the salt would be increased to 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt, not 3/4 of a teaspoon.
Diane
Wow, brown butter is a game changer. This is the only recipe I’ll use now. Thank you!
Katie
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe. Ever. The brown butter takes them to the next level. Pro tip: if you think you underbaked them, you didn’t. Let them cool fully!
devin
AMAZING cookies.
Al
Love these so much! Best cookies I’ve ever tasted.
Courtney
These cookies are perfection!! I will never make another chocolate chip cookie again!
Kristin
We love these cookies! My little guy asked me to make them for his class. Two questions: 1. Can I prepare the dough a day in advance and refrigerate until ready to bake? 2. I noticed you mentioned not to make them smaller. But because these are for 18 kindergartners, how do I effectively make smaller cookies and get the same yummy result? Would I lower the oven temp or just bake for less time?
Kathy
Happy Friday! Just made your awesome cookie recipe My son requested chocolate chip cookies 💕hopefully hubby and I won’t eat them all before he gets here LOL thank you for such an awesome cookie recipe 💕
Tina
amazing cookies!!! I have one question though- my dough turned out very crumbly and was hard to scoop- what did I do wrong?
In Fine Taste
Hi Tina, this could possibly be because you browned the butter for a little too long? It's hard to say without being there. I know a handful of times I have browned my butter longer than usual and too much liquid evaporated from the butter, resulting in a slightly drier dough that doesn't spread as much.
- Alyssa
Suzanne
I made these a few times over the summer and they were probably the best cookies I’ve ever made. I made them again recently and I don’t know what happened but they were not the same cookie. They were so dense and dry and didn’t spread at all. I used my kitchen scale to weigh all the ingredients like I usually do so I don’t know what the issue could be.
In Fine Taste
Hi Suzanne, this sometimes can happen if the butter is browned a little too long. The longer it is browned, the more moisture evaporates from the butter. You should have roughly 1 cup of butter after it has been browned. If you notice your dough seems drier than normal next time, you can try adding a tablespoon of softened butter to add some of the moisture back in and help them spread. I hope that helps!
- Alyssa
Sarah
Delicious cookies. I make them all the time with a little adjustment but they are soooo good!
Ariel
These are so good! The flavour is so nutty and rich, and it has just enough chocolate chips. These bake up perfectly in the oven.